ENTERTAINMENT
XPEC names first CEO
XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) yesterday appointed its chief operating officer Jean-Marc Morel as the company’s first chief executive officer as part of its structural adjustment. Morel has been the company’s chief operating officer since April last year, overseeing product research and development, XPEC said. The troubled game developer’s shares fluctuated in Taipei trading yesterday with its shares falling by the daily maximum limit to NT$15.60 on opening, but rose to NT$15.95 in a bid for more than 412,000 shares 30 minutes later. The shares closed at NT$15.65, falling 9.54 percent from the previous closing. A total of 401 million shares changed hands.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Wafer shipments to rise 2%
Global shipments of polished silicon and epitaxial silicon wafers are expected to rise 2 percent in the next two years, with shipments expected to surpass last year’s results, the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International trade association said in a report released yesterday. Shipments would reach 10,444 million square inches (MSI) this year, 10,642 MSI next year, and 10,897 MSI in 2018, the report said. Following a gradual recovery in the past few months, the semiconductor industry is expected to post year-on-year improvements in shipments until 2018, the association said.
APPAREL
WW seeks Taipei listing
WW Holding Inc (威宏), a Taiwanese sportswear contract manufacturer, yesterday announced that the company is seeking to have its shares listed on the Taipei Exchange next month. The company, which operates plants producing sports and casual bags and accessories in China, said its major clients include Nike, Under Armor and Kipling. The company also branched out into retail distribution for Prince, a sportswear brand, it said. Last year, the company reported annual sales of NT$5.21 billion (US$164 million), generating earnings of NT$5.46 per share.
BEVERAGES
Starbucks unveils new drink
President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克), a joint venture between President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) and the Seattle-based Starbucks, is to unveil a new Frappuccino, featuring peanuts and mesona jelly (仙草), which are commonly used in Taiwanese desserts. The beverage, exclusive to Taiwan, is to be available at the company’s 393 outlets in the nation today, the company said.
TELECOMS
Taiwan Star to meet target
Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星) is optimistic that the company can meet its goal of 1 million 4G subscribers before the end of this year, despite concerns over severe price competition in the sector. Sales are expected to grow 12 percent this year, compared with 11 percent last year, Taiwan Star president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) told reporters yesterday. However, Lai said that the company would face increased competition as rivals Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Corp (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) launch unlimited 4G subscription plans for less than NT$700 per month. Taiwan Star also urged people to be aware of potential eyesight damage, citing findings from a survey it conducted, as more than 60 percent of smartphone users spend more than five hours per day using their mobile devices, the survey found.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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